The Sign of Whats to Come
by CJaMes12
Summary: It starts as just a normal day, until the unexpected happens, and then it all begins. It seems minor in the grand scheme of things, just another 'Conan' incident. Little does anyone know, it's the first stone of the avalanche. does have OC/ ON HIATUS
1. It Started

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

Conan was awoken by the smells of breakfast that were wafting in from the kitchen. He scratched, yawning before reaching for his glasses which were folded on top of the books he had been reading into the night. "A Study in Scarlet." The first of Sherlock's great cases with Watson sat atop the small pile.

"Conan! Dad! Breakfast is ready!" Conan slipped out from under his covers and padded quietly to the door, ojii-san stirring slightly in his bed. It was, he decided, one of the most annoying things about being shrunk. The height of doorknobs. He stretched on tiptoes to reach the handle but before the touched it, it turned of its own volition and he had to jump back as Ran opened the door.

"Come on Conan!" she told him crossly, beckoning at him with a wooden spoon. "You should be out of bed!" she directed the spoons wrath to the lump of duvet that was her father, "I don't care how much you had to drink last night, I am not cooking another breakfast!"

Ran breezed out, followed by Conan who took his seat at the table, only having to half-fake the childish, eager look on his face as Ran put his plate before him.

"Thank you Ran nee-chan!" he exclaimed, inclining his head.

"That's fine Conan-kun. It's nice to know that _someone, _"she directed evil's at the ajar bedroom door, "appreciates my cooking."

Both he and Ran had finished eating by the time Mouri Kogoro staggered from his bedroom. He grumbled as he collected his food, something along the lines of "I can't believe... cold... respect..."

"So Conan-kun, aren't you meeting with the others today?" Ran asked him as he helped her tidy up. Oh Yeah. Truth be told, it'd slipped his mind.

"Yeah. I'm meeting them at Beika Shopping Centre. Not sure why, Ayumi-chan wanted to go." He shrugged.

"Same, I'm going with Sonoko-chan later; maybe I'll see you there."

"That'd be cool." He smiled at Ran, who was smiling at him while stacking the dishwasher, he returned the smile. "I'd better get ready."

-0-

Conan stepped onto the street and turned in the direction to the shopping centre. He sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand before dropping his skateboard to the street. He began to propel his way towards the centre. It was time like this when he almost enjoyed being small, he thought vaguely as he cruised the streets of Tokyo. Before long, he was at the centre and he dropped off his skateboard in one of the possession lockers outside the centre. He climbed a set of stairs, wondering why they were meeting on the third floor. When he got there he went to the information desk to wait, returning the smile of the girl at the desk who immediately turned to her friend, exclaiming, "OMG, How Cute!"

He sighed and looked around. He was standing next to the only free bit of floor that he could, all other space taken up by clothes stands or tables covered with miscellaneous items for sale. Nearby was a couple sporting a box containing free samples for a new brand of... the girl had turned, blocking the brand name. Her friend had an unlabelled tray of sampling cups. He saw Conan watching him and grinned, emphasizing his classical surfer-boy looks.

"Do you want some, little man?" he crouched to Conan's level, proffering the tray jovially.

"You can't offer that to him!" the guys female companion looked shocked, hand on hip in a characteristically Ran-like look on her face, "He's too young." The guy turned his head in her direction.

Fed up with being treated like a kid and being patronised, Conan grabbed a cup and downed the contents in one, to find out that it was a spicy type of alcohol. Spicier than he was expecting. He coughed and spluttered and the guy looked at him, surprised.

"Whoops, Sorry, little man, I was only kidding!" he pulled the tray out of Conan's reach, standing to face his partner, "I didn't know..."

Conan missed the rest of the guys pleas as he walked away to lean against the desk, coughing and rubbing his throat against the low burn left by the alcohol, combined with the original soreness from his cold and the coughing.

Where were they? Even they weren't this late. Often. Conan sighed, resigning himself to the wait.

Someone ran past, coughing into a surgical mask. Conan grimaced, if his cold got any worse, he'd probably be required to wear one as well. As if on cue, a coughing fit came. It took a few moments to abate, when it did however, it left his throat sore and dry. Conan tried to clear his throat before leaning back and watching the people around him to pass time.

Mother; Banker; traditional housewife, judging by her kimono, ring and hairstyle; a girl his own age, foreign, pale skin, dark hair, looking around furtively, possibly on holiday; a man just out of a messy divorce, bagged red eyes, pale band of un-tanned skin on his finger, unkempt appearance, clearly unaccustomed to buying his own clothes. Conan started. Standing on the other side of the clearing was... himself! Or at least a boy who looked like Shinichi. Having overcome his original surprise, Conan could see some difference. He had a different hairstyle, less tamed and a lighter shade of brown. The boy kept checking his watch and tutting, probably waiting for his friend or friends, like Conan. Conan could vaguely remember that time when Ran swore that she had seen Shinichi with another girl... while Conan was certain that this was impossible as he had defiantly stayed as mini-him at the time. Chances are, he reasoned, that it was this guy, or even yet another Shinichi-lookalike who wandered the streets

Pain flashed through him. It was gone as soon as it had started, like a pulse. He knew that feeling. He realised that he was overheating, sweat lacing his brow. An inner heat throbbed through him. He needed to get out of there. Though the exit was tempting, there was no guarantee of a safe place that he could reach in time to hide and change. Not to mention the clothes problem. Clothes.

He ran across the room, darting between clothing racks into the clothing section, unaware, in his hurry, of the Shinichi-lookalike's eyes following him. He ran towards the big sign depicting the words 'Changing Rooms.' The Store girl in charge of the area was retreating away form her post, trying to conceal her phone conversation, giggling down the line as she conversed to some one who must be, to be referred to with that manner and tone, her boyfriend.

He stumbled to his knees as another spasm ran through him. He paused for a moment panting, trying to will himself back to his feet. He lurched up and sprinted the last few metres, turning the Open/Closed sign as he went, slipping into a curtained cubicle

Everything seemed eerily calm for those few moments after the run, as he stood panting in the empty cubicle before his next spasm. He gasped, falling to his knees, clutching his chest, breathing heavily.

Something occurred to him. He gauged that he had enough time. He left the cubicle briefly, daring to the returned items rack. He saw a pair of jeans and a top that seemed to be of a teenage size and managed to yank them off their hanger. Of to the side he saw a pile of spare boxes containing various items of underwear, including socks! He grabbed a couple thanking whichever deity that must be watching over him before dashing back into the changing room.

Another spasm came and passed. Gritting his teeth against the uprising pain, he kicked off his adapted trainers, stripping off the rest of his gadgets, including his belt. He put his glasses and his watch inside his trainers. He shrugged his jacket off. He was moving as quick as he could, hoping that he'd be able to avoid explaining to Ran exactly how he ended up shredding his clothes. He'd just slipped his trousers of when he felt the final surge of pain. He bit down on his bunched up T-shirt to prevent his screams as he was overtaken by the searing pain. His blood boiled, his bones cracked and twisted and his skin pulled itself to its limit. He managed to stay quiet. Just.

When it was all over, a tall, slim, good-looking, raven-haired teenager left the changing room, zipping up a rucksack that was probably too small for a young man his age. Before leaving the changing area, Kudo Shinichi chose a hooded sweatshirt off the rack which proved slightly too large for him. He tutted at his socked feet before noticing a pair of trainers next to the entrance of the area. He frowned. They hadn't been there before had they? He picked them up and examined them before slipping them on.

No one spared a glance for the tall hooded boy who walked out of the 'closed' changing room, not eve the store girl, still tied up in animated conversation with her boyfriend.

Shinichi reached the information desk to see that the free alcohol samplers had moved on. It didn't take a detective of his experience to realise that it was whatever they had been serving that had caused his change. As he made a mental note to track the couple to find out what alcohol it was for Haibara, he couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of it all, alcohol acting as a cure to the poison supplied by his liquor-named friends.

That was when the first explosion rocked the building.


	2. As A Normal Day

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

Shinichi instinctively ducked as the explosion echoed above his head. Screaming filled the room as, en masse, the 40 or so people stampeded towards the door. The PA system crackled into life, cutting through the hue and cry. A singsong voice came across the sound system, loud enough to cut through everyone's fear, freezing everyone in place.

"Today is a very important day, could the shoppers on the third floor please refrain from going through the doors, or I will set off the twelve bombs in that room. Thank You!" The cheery voice made Shinichi feel ill while the other shoppers reversed the tide, surging away from the door, screaming again as other explosions sounded throughout the building. The main lights flickered off, leaving the room dimly illuminated by emergency lighting.

Most of the people were huddled in a bunch in the middle of the open plan room, some sobbing other just looking around hopelessly. Some stood apart form the group, including the lookalike and the small foreign girl. Shinichi watched from his place near the information desk as someone wailed in despair to the song that crackled over the speakers. It was English, he didn't recognise it and the first couple of bars fell on dead air. He checked that his hood was securely up and covering his face.

"Okay everyone!" he called getting everyone's attention, "Please calm down!" he walked forwards, arms raised, trying to take control. He was met by more shouts.

"Calm down!"

"How can we do that?"

"Why us?"

And so on...

"You're all acting exactly how the hostage-taker wants!" someone snapped. Shinichi turned his eyes upon the small foreign girl who barely spared him a glance before continuing, in a calmer tone, "The hostage-taker probably gets a kick from your suffering, are you really going to satisfy him? Make this worthwhile for him?... Or her, "she amended after the rest of the group were shamed into silence.

Fear was still shining in their eyes but they kept quiet, until the mother that Shinichi had noticed earlier spoke in a bare whisper.

"What can we do though?"

The girl gestured towards Shinichi, "He seems to have an idea, let's listen to him."

Shinichi suddenly found himself the object of the stares of the trapped. He tried to swallow away his dry throat, resisting the urge to cough under the other scrutiny.

"Well..." he started tentatively, forming a plan, "He said that there were twelve bombs, there are a lot of us. Look around the room for anything suspicious. Don't touch what you find though," I_t could be volatile, _he thought but didn't say aloud, not wanting to scare them more than necessary,"Call me, and I'll try to deal with it.

"What do you know about bombs," growled a stern-looking man who was now getting over his original fear, "You're probably, just some hooded teenage layabout who knows nothing but what he learns off those brain-numbing games."

"I've defused a few in the past, "Shinichi shrugged, thinking that confident was probably ht best way to go in this situation.

"Yeah, never underestimate a teenager!" crowed the lookalike, just a little too gleefully, "Off we go then! " He grinned, defiantly lightening the atmosphere by a least a few notches, heading out into the room, "The person to find the most bombs wins a prize."

The crowd dispersed. The logical ones, including the lookalike, stared in the corners, working methodically throughout the room. Others searched different stands seemingly at random. They probably had their own personal system, he thought as he watched them browse racks and shelves. He had a sudden thought.

"Keep an eye out for abandoned shopping bags!" he called out, a comment received by a few nods and more deliberate searching.

"I assume that you think this guy will warn us if finding the bombs is against his wishes." The girl was looking up at Shinichi, "before blowing us up, I mean."

"Hopefully." He nodded.

"I agree, it would fit in with the character he's displayed so far."

"What would you know about it?" Shinichi asked curiously.

She blushed, "Oh I... watch too many crime programs."

Feeling a sense of familiarity with her actions, comparing them to s certain mini-detective he knew, he smiled. "No, no. It makes sense."

There was a moment of silence, punctuated by the rustling and squeaking as people slid clothes along a rack to look behind them.

"I'll go help." she ducked her head and darted off.

Shinichi saw a phone on the desk. He picked up the receiver and sighed in relief as he heard the dial tone. He checked hi, Conan's, watch. _He_ should be here by now, Shinichi thought as he began to dial.


	3. Before

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

The police had been called to a disturbance at the Beika shopping centre. A disturbance involving explosions. The onsite police had set up a boundary and at the same time had managed to keep those who had evacuated the centre in the area. Inspector Megure looked over the chaos; people huddled together, watching the centre anxiously as it smoked slightly. He sighed, you had to hand it to the on-sites, they were good. Medics were walking amongst the people, checking for injuries and shock. Nearby cafes were handing out a seemingly endless supply of hot drinks and soup which were accepted gratefully by the evacuees.

He saw Takagi standing at the barrier with Satou, he mad his way over to them, picking his way through the huddles of people.

"Is it okay for them, "he gestured at the people, "to be sitting here?"

"The bomb squad okayed the perimeter, "Satou informed him.

"They want more information before actually heading in, "input Takagi.

"Did everyone get out?"

"So far as we know. No ones gone in yet though and everyone who got out were rushing too much to pay attention to those around them. There could be injured inside that we don't know about. No ones been reported missing however."

"Any injuries?"

"Just minor cuts and grazes. Doesn't seem to fit a bomber MO, which is why bomb squad doesn't want to move in. I might be a trap."

The inspector was nodding when a little voice called up to him.

"Excuse me Inspector; have you seen Conan-kun?"

He looked down to see Ayumi, flanked by her friends Genta and Mitsuhiko, all with concerned expressions on their faces. Just behind them was the Haibara girl with the unreadable face. Her cold eyes were latched on his and he had to withhold a shiver.

"No." The inspector replied, "I've only just got here though."

"He's not here!" Ayumi wailed, "I bet he's still in there! It's all my fault!" The boys all rose up, reassuring Ayumi that what ever it was wasn't her fault until Takagi cut across them.

"Wait, why would he be in there? Weren't you with him?"

Ayumi shook her head, but seemed unable to speak, so Mitsuhiko took over.

"He was going to meet us in there, but we were late. 'Coz someone, "he glared a Genta, "kept stopping to eat. Genta looked guiltily to the ground.

"Maybe he was late as well," Takagi put forward, hoping to cheer the kids up somewhat, but also worried for the strange little boy who seemed to know too much.

"Oh, he's never late." Genta assured the police officers, appearing slightly offended that they could consider otherwise.

"He would have called us." Haibara stated, "If he wasn't in there, he would have called us to check we were okay."

Megure's phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and saw an unrecognised number, "Don't worry, he's probably around here somewhere." _He always is, _he thought to himself as he flipped his phone open, raising it to his ear.

"Inspector Megure speaking, who is this?"

There was a beat of hesitation before a young male voice answered.

"One of the shoppers on the third floor of the Beika shopping centre."

Megure switched it to speaker phone and placed it on the hood of Takagi's car, looking back at the smoking building.

"Are you okay?"

The strangely familiar voice replied, "Yes. For now."

Everyone standing around the car started as the voice continued.

"There are around 40 of us. We have been warned that if we try to leave then the bomber will set off the twelve bombs in this room." There was a pause. "I'm assuming that the lack of a warning now means that he's okay with me contacting the police."

Silence greeted his words, before the Inspector snapped, "Where are you now!"

"At the information desk on the third floor, but I wouldn't advise sending a bomb squad up, that's probably against the rules, then the bomber would just blow them up as well."

The Inspector cursed as the kids stirred. Part of his annoyance stemmed from the voice. It was so damn familiar, but he just couldn't place it.

"That's where we were supposed to meet Conan, "one of them whispered. He noticed that, for some reason he couldn't fathom, nor that he had time to puzzle over, a resigned expression passed over the Haibara girls face and she tutted.

"Hey, I found one!" another voice was heard over the phone.

"Baka," the first one cursed, "I said not to touch them!"

"Oh, I know what I'm doing. I've got a very steady hand. "The second voice retorted in an exasperated yet know-it-all voice, "Any way, it'll probably be better to have them all together, then you can _deal with them_ more efficiently. Plus, upside, less devastating explosion!" that last sentence was added in a cheery tone.

There was a terse silence from the first speaker. The inspector was about to interrupt when the second voice continued, with a hint of evident self satisfaction.

"Great, glad that's sorted. Back to work then."

The inspector took his chance. "What's going on?"

"We're searching for bombs." The guy confirmed.

"Is that safe!" Takagi exclaimed.

"We received a warning when we tried to leave. We are proceeding with the theory that he will warn us if we step out of line. So far no warning. It's just one big game."

"You have a bomb there?" The Inspector asked, beckoning a bomb squaddie over.

"Yep."

"Describe it to me." The bomb squad man ordered.

There was a pause and some rustling.

"Ah." The voice said. "That complicates things."


	4. Things Took A Turn

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

Shinichi looked away from the bomb up to the others, who were searching for more. The lookalike was now hypocritically chastising another man for attempting to move a newly discovered bomb. The bomb that he had at his feet had been found in a paper shopping bag. He wasn't been able to reach in and pick it up, any unsettling movement could set it off. Especially if it was similar to the mercury lever, he thought with a shudder, remembering Totou Tower.

He could see however, the combination lock on top of the bomb. Beneath the countdown clock which displayed the two hours that they had to figure something out, was a four digit lock. Damn, the height of the bag prevented him from looking closer.

He was preparing to try and rip the bag in the smoothest motion possible when a blade was brandished in front of his nose.

"Here." He looked towards the person holding the knife to see the girl. He jerked backwards slightly in surprise throwing himself off balance. After regaining it, he looked at her carefully.

"Why'd you have that?"

She shrugged, "I saw the bag the bomb was in and asked that guy over there, "she pointed to a tall, stolid looking man that had a regimental haircut and way of holding himself. Ex-army, he reasoned. He flashed her a grin and took the knife. As he began slicing the corners of the bag, she spoke again.

"It's strange; all of these people, even that ex-lieutenant are doing what you say, even though you're really young.

"Not as young as you." He countered, peeling the sides of the bag down, away from the bomb.

She chuckled once, "That goes without saying."A pause. "I think it's because you know what you're doing. Or you appear to. We all hope you're not faking." With that she walked back off to the others to search for more incendiaries.

He nodded to his look alike as he deposited another bomb next to the first. He sliced that bag too and with a sinking feeling stood up to pick up the receiver on the desk.

"I'm back."

Megure spoke immediately, "What's wrong?"

"The outer casings of the two bombs I have here both have combination locks. We can assume that the other twelve will be the same. The detonation time on the readout screens is in two hours." Twin cries came from the other side of the room as two more bombs were uncovered. Lookalike immediately took charge of bringing them over. Shinichi passed him the knife while he spoke to the Inspector.

"We now have four bombs," Lookalike nodded to Shinichi in confirmation and he continued, "They are all the same." He heard Megure give orders for someone to go look up bombers with similar MO's.

"I'm gonna go help," he said down the line before leaving the phone off the hook.

Before long, they had all twelve bombs gathered by the information desk, laid out in a row. Some of the group still prowling for other bombs, just in case the bomber had been lying about the number of bombs.

Lookalike had sliced all the bags, revealing each of the bombs to have a four digit code, locking the outer shell of the bomb, preventing them from getting to the wires within.

The main body of the people were standing several metres away, now the bombs were found, they wished to put as much distance between themselves and the incendiaries. HE walked over to them.

"I need eleven volunteers."

"What for?"

"To try and work through the possible combinations."

No one brought up the obvious problem. Even if they were able to open the bombs in time, chances of defusing them... slim.

"It's the best we've got.

There was a silence as rows of faces looked at him.

"Well, lets get started," grinned his lookalike, stretching and rubbing his hands together in mock glee, much like a kid at Christmas, as he walked towards the bombs. The girl nodded and followed the teenager. The ex-lieutenant also forced his way through the stationary crowd, inclined his head, first to Shinichi then to the others before seating himself in front of a bomb.

"I'll help, what's to lose." Shrugged the recently divorced man.

"That's four," said Shinichi slowly, "I need four more."

"Times a-ticking people!" Called the lookalike from his bomb.

After some stirring, awkwardness and muttering, Shinichi and eleven others sat by their bombs. They'd been joined by the changing room store girl, teary eyed but determined, a student wearing a football jock top, an elderly gentlemen with horn rimmed glasses which he persistently had to push back up his nose and the stern gentleman who'd mouthed off at him earlier.

0010

0011

0012

0013

Being as careful as possible, they rattled through the numbers.

0019

0020

0021

It didn't make sense, why make the bombs so easy to find, only to make them so hard to open. Surely that wouldn't satisfy the bomber.

0027

0028

0029

It takes little to no skill to reel off numbers, if the bomber wanted to play with us, surely he'd leave a clue for them.

The lookalike seemed to reach a similar conclusion; they looked at each other, a glimmer of hope shining with the idea.

"Who found a bomb?" Shinichi asked of the silent, fidget-less, watching people. Several raised their hands.

"Could you check the area where you found it, for a clue of some sort?" lookalike asked of a young lady.

"S-sure," she stuttered, nodding. Some others, of their own volition stood and left to their respective areas to check for themselves.

0042

0043

0044

0045

0046

"It's dark, but I think there's writing here." The young lady called, causing the other searchers to veer towards her.

"Can't read it." said one.

"S'in English" said another.

Both the girl and Lookalike looked up with Shinichi. One of the store clerks noticed this and stood, nudging two of her fellows as she went who also stood. They walked towards the decoders.

"You check it out, "she said kindly, "We'll take over."

"Thanks!" Shinichi nodded and climbed to his feet, a little too quickly apparently. His head span and he needed the support of the store-girls arm.

"You okay?" she asked, concern painted on her face and in her voice.

He nodded slightly, "Got a cold," he muttered. He was beginning to feel the effects of the cold that always accompanied his return to his own body for short periods of time.

He followed Lookalike (for that was now the name he had given to him,) to the area that the bomb finders were gathered around. They had taken the clothes off the rack and thrown them into the corner to better reveal the message written on the wall.

Painted in capitals was a small poem or phrase, he wasn't sure what it qualified as. The girl read in out in flawless English with a slight lilt of a foreign accent. Possibly Scottish.

**"Envelop now our souls**  
**Kill your occasional nemisis**  
**Begin giving, out living.**  
**Eight came dreaming, same**  
**Crafting Salem with Demons**  
**The end is nigh."**

**A/N **

**Hey, I hope you enjoy the code. It is possible, I think, give it a go and see what oyu come up with. **

**Constructive critism is expected and welcome. Oh, and if something is in bold, then chances are, if it's spoken, it's in English. Hope you enjoy reading.**

**I had a typing spurt today, but I can't garentee such fast updating on a regular basis, it'll all depend on workload, but it's nearing Christmas now, so hey, I'll probably have tons of free time.**

**Last Note. I have this story all planned out, as well as the next one, and a couple of scenes much later on, but I need filler arcs. Now I will be sticking to the canon couplings, but if any of you have ideas for cases or stry fillers, post it in the reviews, and i'll try and pick some of them up and work them into the plot. All ideas will be considered.**

**CJaMEs**


	5. For The Worst

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

A beat of silence.

"Creepy." Breathed Lookalike, standing and sighing, "It could be unrelated, a kid could have written it."

"Twisted kid." The girl muttered, concentrating too hard to notice Lookalikes bemused stare of disbelief.

"I've found another one!" called a man who'd checked his area at a different point in the room.

Shinichi smiled, "No such thing as coincidences." He darted to where the man was using Conan's watch to light up the shadows cast on the patch of wall.

**Turn to father's sons**

**Sharing twice your fears**

**Maré, who tours, severs**

**Lame is your ride**

**Camped where foes reign**

**Live if you can.**

"What's it say?" called the girl. Shinichi read it out.

"It appears to be nonsense, "Lookalike mused.

"All poems are nonsense muttered one of the men standing by them.

"Only if you take them at face value," Lookalike asserted, "There's got to be appoint to these otherwise, why leave them?"

The same man shrugged, "To waste time."

"Us, looking at them, isn't stopping others from working through the numbers, or anything else we find."

Shinichi nodded in agreement.

"There are more!" the girl called, from her place next to someone else at a different area of the room, "at the other bomb sites."

Ten minutes later, they were back at the information desk, the area with the best light, looking at the pieces of paper strewn before them. The girl had sketched a map of the room and marked the spots where the bombs had found in case a correlation could be found, and labelled each of them. Each label corresponded with to a poem found there, each as nonsensical as the others. The girl had written the poems out in neat capitals and these were what their attention was focused on.

Shinichi was looking at the first one.

**Eight come dreaming, same**

Eight could be involved but it was the only number mentioned so he moved on thinking to the ticking of the dials as they were configures and the ever constant countdown.

"How many 'witches' were killed at Salem?" he wondered out loud.

"24." Answered the girl, "but if the poem referred to that, it would make it clearer. It could mean the number of girls involved, the number of months the incident transgressed or even how many letters the word has."

Lookalike looked riled for some reasons and was about to respond before Shinichi cut across him.

"No, she's right. It's too vague." He sighed. "When you think poem, what occurs to you?" the cold was clouding his mind slightly, he shook his head in a vain attempt to clear the pounding as the girl gasped suddenly.

"Maybe..." she grabbed a poem and scanned it. She sighed and shook her head, "Never mind."

"What was it? Just so we can rule it out."

She bit her lip. "Well at school, one of the years had all these poems on display. The style was Acrostic, you know, the ones where the first letter of each sentence spelt out the topic. I read them enough times." The last part was muttered a tad bitterly for some reason, but Shinichi ignored it, mind whirring once again.

"Nice deduction, "Lookalike smirked sarcastically, "Why's a kid helping exactly?"

Shinichi cut across the girls glare with a flash of inspiration.

"Wait a moment! Each line has four words right, so let's assume that each column represents a number..." he scanned the poem, looking for other hints. His eyes roamed over the whole poem, columns, individual words. He grinned as it hit him.

"I got it."

**A/N Quite a short chapter today, but that was the best place to cut it. Can you figure it out? I think enough clues are there...**

**Thank you to those who've reviewed, thankyou also to the sixteen of you who have alerted my story in some way or another, but I would really appreaciate it if you reviewed as well. **

**I hope to update again tommorrow but it depends how the cards lie when it comes to work load, so wait and see. I think that's all I've got to say, but I have a niggling feeling that I've left something out... Oh well, I'll eitehr edit this or add it to the next Authors notes when it comes back to me.**

**Hope you enjoyed reading.**

**P.S. Wow coming up with the poems was awkward. If you want me to post the other ten, I can, I've got afew others as I wasn't sure how many I would use in the story, but I can write others easy enough. In Theory.**


	6. Something Blew Up

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

"Look," he picked up the girls pen, "On the first line, take the first letter of the first word, on the second line the second letter and so on." He demonstrated and repeated the process on the other columns of the poem, underling the relative letters. He showed it to the other two with a pleased flourish. In the end, he had:

**Enevelop now our souls**

**Kill your occasional nemesis**

**Begin giving, out living**

**Eight came dreaming save**

**Crafting Salem with Demons**

**The End is Nigh**

**E N O S**

**i o c e**

**g v t v**

**h e a e**

**t m n**

Silence

"Thats a good one..." mused Lookalike.

"Try 8987!" Shinichi told the decoders.

They did and moments later one of them exclaimed, "I've got it! It's open!"

Shinichi lookd at the second one they'd found. Moments later,

**T T F S**

**h w o e**

**r o u v**

**e r e**

**e n**

"3247." he told the decoders, seconds later there was a cry of astonishment as another bomb casing split open.

Just then, Lookalike picked up the reciever,

"Hello?"

He listened for a few moments to whoever it was on the other line. He looked up at the girl with a smirk on his faec, "Yeah there's a kid here. Your friend ahs been very helpful so far. Could you put the Inspector on, I think from the way Tantei-kun is glaring at me, he wants to talk to him."

He grinned and held the reciever out for

"You do the others, " Shinichi told the other two , grabbing the reciever, to hear the Inspector check in.

"What's the situation."

"We've unlocked two bombs and can start trying to defuse them if a squaddie told us what to do over the phone, it looks like a standard wiring up onthe inside. Three bombs." He corrected as as there was another gasp of, not quite delight, but something similar, as they cracked open another bomb.

"How...?" the Inspector audibly gathered himself, "Okay," Shinichi smiled as he pictured the Inspector nodding with certainty, hearing him call the Squaddie over again.

**A/N Another shorty but that is by design. I already have all the chap's for this arc and the next handwritten out in rough (the result of long journeys everyday) which need typing up. Just thought I should get the solution up ASAP, the next chap should be longer. Read, review, Enjoy.**


	7. And The Race

The knot of tension in Takagi's stomach loosened ever so slightly when he heard that they were managing to unlock the bombs. He could imagine Conan helping up there but couldn't for the life of him figure out why he hadn't come to the phone. Usually he would be the first there.

"Hey, I think the ciphers stopped working." And the knot was tighter than ever.

He assumed that the cipher was the method of finding out the bomb combinations. If it'd stopped working then... Damn.

This was their correspondences reaction as well.

"What!" he said sharply, away from the receiver.

"The letters are all jumbled up. Maybe it's and anagram of sorts?"

A high child's voice was heard, "What letters are they?"

Strings of English letters were read off, followed by what they spelt.

"**A, C, H, T. ****Acht****."**

The crowd around the phone were waiting with bated breath so could hear the small chuckle.

"Baka."

"Oh, so you know what it means!" the second speaker, a young man, mocked the small child who'd spoken.

"Acht, is German. For eight,"

The correspondance chuckled slightly.

"Ein, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, seiben, ACHT. Like the first one had Latin numbers in it this ones got German."

"No need to act the know-it-all."

"But you make it so easy."

"Less talking. More Decoding."

"That was Conan!" Mitsuhiko exclaimed excitedly.

"I don't know," fretted Ayumi, "Wasn't the voice a bit too high?"

"That's because of the phoneconnection." Mistuhiko proclaimed knowledgeably.

"Maybe, but..."

Genta cut across Ayumi, " Did you not hear that know-it-all tone? It was Conan."

Takagi had to agree with Ayumi. The phone connection wasn't enough wasn't enough to account for the feminine quality to the voice.

The Squaddie was asking the young man on theother end of the phone to describe the bomb. As he did so, Takagi spotted two young women picking their way through the seated crowds towards them.

Ran and Sonoko were looking aound at thecontrolled chaos with shocked expressions. Takagi went forward to meet them.

"What happened!" exclaimed Ran as soon as she was in earshot.

"Some bombs went off!" Ayumi cried, stifling a sob. Ran looked at the group and immediately picked up on the missing member.

"Where's Conan?"

"Yeah, where is the brat?" Sonoko echoed, "Something like this happens, you can't do anything without him sticking his nose in."

"The bomber is keeping a group of people hostage," Haibara stated, arms crossed, not even looking at Ran, "The facts suggest that Conan is one of this group."

"The facts suggest," mimicked Genta, "We heard him over the phone!" Haibara didn't respond.

"Oh my God!" Rachel exclaimed, voice filled with worry. "What's happening about it!"

* * *

Shinichi flinched when he heard Ran's voice from over the phone. Both he and the ex-army guy were defusing a bomb, in unison as the instrutions were read out over the phone. The Squaddie had been relieved to hear that it sounded like a pretty simple, straight forward bomb and was confident in telling them what to do while one of the shopgirls wrote the instructions down for others to follow with later bombs.

They were lucky that the shop girls had scissors that they used to cut tags, those and the knife from the army man, and , to his suprise a knife from teh lookalike, they had enough for four others to start defusing bombs at the same time.

Soon there was just one bombs, being defused by Lookalike. The room was eerily silent, waiting with bated breath as the young man cut through eh wires with a remarkably steady hands. Everyones brreathing stopped as he placed the knife next to the final wire. They only released it after the knife had passed cleanly through the wire and the timer stopped and faded. 00:41.

"Inspector." Shinichi said down the phone, barely able to keep the joy out of his voice. "We have defused the final bomb." The cheer that took place on teh other end of the echoed down the line and into the shop, kickstarting the reactions of the other ex-hostages, who began shouting and hugging each other. Shinichi was hit on teh back several times, hugged and thanked. He grinned as the jock picked up the girl and swung her round in a circle. Lookalike laughed at her until the ex-army man enveloped him in a hug, practically suffocating him. The ex-army guy grinned at the girl over Lookalikes head and she gave him teh thumbs up.

"Come out, and we'll send Bomb Squad up to retrieve them."

Shinichi acknowledged and put the phone down. His mind wandered to how he could explain away Conan's disappearance.

* * *

Takagi heard something ring underneath his car. He knelt and saw what looked like a strange phone. He picked it up and flicked it open. Down the other end, he heard chattering and sounds of movement. Then he heard the correspondances voice repeating the Inspectors words. He paused before setting to speaker and laying the phone down.

"Is this anyone's phone?" he asked to a chorus of head shakes and denials.

"Why..." asked Satou before her eyes widened, you could make out a couple of the voices from the crowd on the other end of the receiver, the voices of the ones in charge of the phone during the incident. She frowned.

Then there was an explosion.


	8. Against The Clock

Shinichi coughed violently, trying to see through the veil of dust surrounding him. He could make out the girl lying next to him, face down. He rolled her over, worry rising in him.

"Kid! Hey, kid!" She stirred, groaning. She breathed in deeply and immediately fell into a spasm of coughing.

He was relieved. He'd had a split second to pull her out from under the cascading rock that had collapsed in the doorway. A charge embedded above the doorframe, he reasoned.

His head was pounding, when he put his hand to it, it was moist. His hand was sticky with blood when he withdrew it. He stared at the red for a moment, trying to focus through the hammers drumming out a tattoo in his head.

He realised that someone was shouting, but sounding incredibly muffled.

"Hello! Can you here me? Are you okay?" It was Lookalike from the other side of the pile of rubble. He was peering through a gap that, earlier that day, Shinichi would have been able to fit through.

"I'm fine!" Shinichi said in what came out as little more than a croak, he coughed and tried again in a stronger voice. "I'm fine I think." He glanced at the girl who nodded wearily, "the kid is too."

A voice took this moment to crackle over the speakers. "Congratulations on rescuing all those people young man, but was it really worth it?" They're just going to die when the final big bomb goes off. It might be kinder to have let them quickly die rather than letting them grasp at hope." The silence hung in the air to be broken by:

"Bastard!" snarled Lookalike. He looked at Shinichi, "The others have headed out of the building, a few tripped or were knocked over from repercussions, but are mostly all right. I told them that I'd check on you, some didn't want to run off."

"I'm going to go look for the bomb." Shinichi told him. He nodded, and then looked at the kid. "Hey, I'm sure you could fit through that gap if that guy lifted you..."

The girl was shaking her head, cutting him off. "I'm helping him." She stated decisively.

"Erm, what makes you think that?" Shinichi asked her.

She rolled her eyes, " I may prove useful, you'll be surprised what a kid can do."

She was right, he had to conceed, he knew better than most what a kid was capable of.

"Fine." he said, much to the annoyance of Lookalike, but he seemed to decide against complaining.

"I'll clear the rubble," he told them, "then follow."

"No." Shinichi said firmly before switching to English. He spoke quickly and quietly to Lookalike who nodded to show that he understood.

"**Good Luck.**" he said before stepping back from the hole.

"And off we go." Shinichi sighed, turning his back on teh sounds of shifting stone. He reasoned that Lookalike was smart enough to consider the high probabilty of ceiling collapse and would prepare to counter it. None of it mattered anyway, unless he succeeded in disarming the bomb.

He ran, the girl on his heels to the staff door on the other side of the room. The explosions had cut the power that held the door closed, so it opened easily, without the need for a pass code. Then came a choice, he could take the corridor or the stairs. He knew that the room they'd just left didn't contain the bomb, mostly by common sense, they had searched the room from top to bottom after all, the other part was his gut instinct, the one that came with his detective experience that invariably proved correct.

He ran down the stairs.

"What makes you think it's down here?" The girl asked from just behind him.

"He said it, that the ones who'd just gotten out would be harmed with the bomb. If placed anywhere higher than the first floor won't cause much outwards damage, except for the flying shrapnel. However, if he places it in a basement, for example, Not only would it damage the foundations enough to destry the building, but also the buildings around it, affecting electric and water pipes, even possibly the underground. And the ones who'd just escaped would still be in the danger zone."

The girl nodded, accepting his reasoning, remaining no more than two steps behind him. They paused momentarily on the first floor. Shinichi shook his head.

"It won't be locked," he indicated the staffdoor to their left, "He knows that having come this far, I'm not going to back out now. You can go if you wish, you needn't come any further." Might as well offer the the option, but he reckoned that he had a pretty good read on her by this point however. He suspicions were confirmed as she raised her eyebrow, a habit he'd always envied of Haibara.

"Really. And I had you pegged as a people-reader Tantei-oniisan."Shinichi stared after her as she began down the final flight of stairs.

"Hey!" he called following her, "Why'd you call me that?"

"That's what the other guy called you, and it just seemed to fit. Plus I need to call you something."

Shinichi didn't respond and moments later they were pushing open the door leading to the lowest level of the centre.

It was pitch black and the air was thick with dust.

"Really," coughed Shinichi, flicking on Conan's flashlight watch, "You'd think they'd keep better care of this area."

The girl hummed her agreement. "Let's hurry." She looked up at him, " My guess it's in the boiler room. It's always the boiler room."

They scoured the floor, searching all the rooms. Three guesses where the bomb was.


	9. Began,

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

**Just a small note, there has been a small edit in an earlier chapter. It's not a major one, just that in 'And Then it Just Got Weirder,' the song that plays after the bomber signs off is different. I preferred to use a different song in this chapter, but I didn't realise the contradiction until I started typing this up. **

**And also, there was a phrase that the bomber used in the same chapter which for various reasons and my helpful friends, I realised needed to be in for latter section to make sense. I'll be easy to pick up when reading, just explaining now though, so you know. That was just to clear up any confusion that may, or may not occur in this chapter. Enjoy. And Merry Christmas.**

The little speaker remained quite for a long while, during which the policemen discussed options, firing ideas at the bomb squad, getting increasingly frustrated as few feasible actions presented themselves. Trying not to flail in their inability to act, they busied themselves with widening the evacuated area.

"No!" a familiar girl, who'd just come to the police after scouring the crowds for someone, cried, having found out what the situation was. She was trying to duck under the boundary.

"Nakamori-san," Megure tried to calm her, with the help of Ran.

"No! You don't understand, he's still in there!" Ran spoke soothing words into the girl's ear.

"Baka, there's no need to worry, I'm right here." Takagi froze. Coming up to Ran was the teen detective, Kudo Shinichi, walking towards them, from the building. Or not. Ran slumped her shoulder in disappointment after a moment of hope while the other girl spun and launched herself at the boy. Now he was closer, even Takagi, who'd only seen Kudo a couple of times, noticed some differences amongst all the similarities between the two lads. Different hair for one. Different girlfriends for another.

The boy shook of the girl and spoke to Megure, "He and the kid have gone to sort out the remaining bomb. I've cleared the door, not that there's any real need." He continued, ignoring the gasps and evils his words elicitated from Ran and Conan's friends, "Seeing as the other doors appear to be unlocked." He finished, now looking around at the eyes trained on him, now not so vicious. "What?"

Before another word was said, voices crackled from the receiver once again.

_"I said it would be in the boiler room. Classic!"_

_"Lucky guess. Hmm. This bomb is different to the others." _Next to them, the boy extricated himself from his friend, whispering something in her ear and slipping off into the crowd.

_"Shit, we have half an hour."_

_"Language."_ The kid admonished, _"And of course we have ourselves another code. Damn. "_There was an intake of breath, someone preparing to say something.

_"Damn is not swearing."_ The kid cut in before the young man had time to speak, _"There's no code in the area." _There was silence, and lots of rustling before,

_"There must be something in what he said."_

_"Wouldn't put it past this guy to have put a clue in his announcements."_

More Silence. More Rustling.

_"Didn't he put a song on before. One in English, it would fit his style. Wasn't one i'd heard before."_

_"My Immortal, Evanescence."_

Beat of quiet. _"You know that how?"_

The shrug of the kids shoulders( Takagi was less and less convinced of this being Conan by the second, Ran clearly was too.) was audible.

_"Doesn't matter, it's too braod a topic, you can twist any number of combinations from it. unless we had a cipher."_

One fot he two was breathing hard but there was silence as they both relapsed into thought.

Frustration raged through Takagi. Theose two kids were stuck in this situation, with no outside help. They hid it with banter but you could hear the strain between them. Not to mention , just to rub sea salt into the gaping wound, the bomber had bugged them, so the police could hear the two's last words before they were blown to oblivion, for that was looking to be the only possible outcome.

The other thing, was Conan. The more he listened to that kid on the other endof the line speak, the more certain he was that it wasn't that over-inquisitive, bright eyed boy. In which case, where was he? Was he still in the building? If so, it was ut of character for him not to be in the thick of things. So...

_"You know that there's still a problem if we open it, right? How to defuse it."_

The young man chuckled drily, in a forced sounding way.

_"We amy be in luck there, it looks like something I've seen before. I might just remember how to defuse it."_

**A/N I hope you enjoyed it. I'm going to take this moment to point out a one shot I've published recently. It's single review is looking pretty lonely, and I would love to get other points of view on the story. Please read and review... Both stories.**

**I'm also gonna send out another plea for filler plot Ideas, I've got most of the main structure of this story sorted out, but I need mini-arc ideas to fill out the main plot and seperate the bigger arcs, otherwise, the story may be squished and seem to be quite rushed. If nobody posts any mini ideas (it could just be a puzzle you want stuck in here, or just a muder or robbery scenario, you don't even need to solve it, i could work out a solution and a way for it to fit in, a friend just gave me an idea which i'm buzzing over at the moment, involving a double murder and a well known nonsense poem.) Please write back, or say u have an idea, and we can PM while i set out a story. I may end up useing some Professor Layton puzzles to give the story depth, I will include these in the bibliography if I do, you will always know what is mine and what isnt.**

**Thanks :) CJaMes12**

**HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS**


	10. Just His

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

Sweat was slipping down Shinichi's face as he walked carefully through the door held open by the girl which led onto the roof. He was desperately trying not to tilt the bomb in any way as he placed it near the water tower, stepping back from it with a sigh of relief. He looked at the girl who was sat back on her haunches, regarding the bomb.

"You say that you know what kind of bomb it is." she stated carefully.

"Yep." Much to Shinichi's dread, he did. Images of that cramped elevator came to mind. "It's a mercury lever. Tilt it too much, we go boom."

It was by luck that they'd discovered the dumb waiter which they'd used to get the bomb to the top floor, he'd carried it the rest of the way. It didn't seem to have had the strong jolt that primed the lever system so, for now, they were safe from that.

He looked at the bug he'd pinned to his trousers. They'd realised that the bomber would be listening to every word they said, so, while putting on a show for the bug, they'd been exchanging notes and reasoned that they had an idea for the actual code. They actually had a few.

They disregarded the bombers words over the PA, figuring that he didn't really want them to diffuse the bomb, so he'd mislead them with other clues. True to an extent, but part of him felt(something which would soon be realised) that they were giving the bomber too much credit.

They decided to look at time, place and other things relative to the bomb.

Shinichi crouched and put his fingers to the dial. 0-3-1-2, 1-2-0-3. Floor and number of bombs. No luck

2-3-0-3, 0-3-2-3, building number and floor number. No Joy.

The girl, without pausing in her rambling, scribbled something down in her pad and slid it towards him.

_Today is a very important day._

It hit him. Possibly, the date. 6-2-1-0. With a click, the bomb casing slid open.

Shinichi punched the air as a grin stretched over the girls face. A grin she tried to keep out of her voice as she continued to elucidate combinations from Evanescense's 'My Immortal.' Shinichi imputted with hmm's and small comments as he bent over the bomb, relieved to recognise the criss cross of wires. The only real differance was the lack of an LCD screen to disconnect, bearing last second information which you get blown up for. It made him wonder if the bomber had access to the Touto Tower incident.

If so, why weren't teh other bombs like this. Oh. They could contact the police in the origional scenario, the links to the Tower case wold be all too obvious for the police to piece together, risking the bomber. However, they weren't supposed to live through this situation to tell the police. Filing this deduction away for later, he focused on teh bomb before him.

Shinchi took a deep breath, trying to push away the niggling symptoms associated with fever and, for him, shrinking. He looked out at the rooves of teh surrounding buildings. They'd risked bringing the bomb up to the roof, with the small hope that the explosion, should it occur, would be less devastating for the surrounding buildings and their inhabitants.

If push came to shove, they could drop it into the water tower. However, if the bomb was big enough to do the damage depicted by the bomber, their efforts would doubtless be futile.

A note was pushed into his face.

_You're hands are shaking, let me defuse the bomb, write me what to do._

Shinichi looked at the girl who was still verbally listing off combinations as she held his gaze.

His hands, he realised, were shaking uncontrollably, side effects of the antidote wearing off. Was this how Takagi had felt? Left with letting a kid defuse such a momumental bomb? He nodded, moving aside

She took his place, flicking the knife that she still had with her, looking at him for instructions.

"Give me a minute to think," he said outloud, the girl lapsed into complying silence.

After a moment, he began writing.

**A/N This is my final posting before Christmas, thought I'd get one off before going to the Midnight Service. Never been to one before. Lots of singing apparently, sounds like fun. Merry Christmas.**


	11. And Many Other Lives

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

Look alike was scanning the crowd from his vantage point. He'd soon pinpointed the likely's, people of interest. He checked his watch. Two minutes to go before the countdown timer ran down. He saw the police fretting around the car. Apparently, it didn't sound as if the two were doing well with the bomb. He smiled, hopefully the bomb would already be sorted. He continued watching the P-O-I's as the time ran down.

One minute.  
Thirty Seconds.  
Twenty.  
Five.  
Four.  
Three.  
Two.  
One.

He saw it.

That flinch, the flinch of someone expecting an explosion that didn't come, just like Tantei-kun had said. The bomber.

He pressed the send button on his phone as he leapt from his ledge and began to move quickly but unnoticably through the crowd. He saw his friend recieve the text and relay it to the policemen. She managed to spot him and pointed him out to the law enforcement men. They saw him then looked to where he was headed and saw the figure, frozen in shock, staring at the shopping centre, standing at the boundaries, while others sat.

Unfortunately, the bomber in turn saw the police's interest and ducked under the boundary, running towards the department store.

He increased his speed, trying to gain on the bomber, who reached the building, just as the kid walked through the doors. The girl came out of the building to see the bomber bearing down on her before he brusquely grabbed her.

**A/N this was the best place to break this, don't worry, there are some longer chapters ahead.**


	12. At Risk

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

Shinichi saw the bomber grab the girl, taking the knife that was still dangling from her hand and pressing it against her throat as he hoisted her up, using her as a shield against the surrounding police officers.

Shinichi cursed and took a step into a spasm. The shock and bad timing drove him to his knees as molten heat pulse through him. Though he couldn't hear anything through the glass door, he had an angle that meant he could see the bomber leering at the police through that surgical mask of his. With a jolt, Shinichi recognised the coughing man who'd run past Conan earlier that day. A man now threatening the girl with a knife.

Strangly enough, the girl seemed sublimly disinterested, not even struggling. She wasn't looking at the police, or the knife, but at a point past the two, her eyes conveying a message that Shinchi couldn't see clearly enough to pick up on. His burning insides didn't help much either. A helpfully placed wall blocked his view of the police, who probably didn't even know he was there, the bomber hadn't looked around either. If he could just...

Then, for the many-eth time that day, the unexpected happened. The girl, who had her hands on the bombers arm, as if trying to keep it away from her throat. Certainty in her expressions, she nodded as she pushed as hard as she could against the arm. Because, she hadn't been struggling, the bombers arm was relatively relaxed, and wasn't expecting the action. She succeeded in in moving the knife away from her throat for a brief second, catching the bomber by surprise. In this short moment, a small projectile shot over the girls head into the bombers forehead.

The bomber crumpled, dropping the girl, who landed heavily. She pulled herself shakily to her feet, kicking the knife out of the bombers reach. Not that there was any need, He was unconsious, a red line blooming across his forehead.

The offending projectile spun into the air after contact, landing a few metres away from Shinichi, on the other side of the door. It was a card. A seven of diamonds.

Before he consider the implications, fire flared thorugh him and his sight double-teamed. This spasm spurred him to his feet. He had to get out of htere, he couldn't be seen. He fell back up the stairs, stumbling unsteadily around the debris as he felt the change coming. He just had to make sure that noone would see him.

He stopped in the third floor stairwell, leaning against the wall, he let the change take him. He bit his T-shirt to try and muffle the sound of screaming.

Conan didn't have long, he'd exerted himself too much as Shinichi, not to mention that the gash in his head had opened up again as he'd changed. His sight was ringed by a dark tinge as he changed back into his mini-clothes and he threw the bigger clothes into the hole that Lookalike had cleared. He took a few steps around the corner towards the stairwell to the forth floor as the police would be sure to question how the hostages could have failed to see him if he was in full view. He was dizzy however, and tripped over a large pice of rubble and fell into black.


	13. Yet Again,

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

**This is the penultimate chapter, enjoy.**

Takagi revelled in the satisfaction brought to him by slapping on those cuffs. He looked around to see who'd fired the projectile but no figures came forward. The girl who'd been through so much turned back to the building but was prevented from re-entering it by Satou's restraining hand.

"But, Tantei-onii-chan!" the girl cried out worriedly, "Where is he? He was right behind me!"

Takagi received the nod and, after passing the prisoner to another officer, he entered the building with Satou, Shiratori and a group of Squaddies along with other officers.

The inside of the building had a layer of dust coating everything, rubble spread over the floor. There was a patch of upturned dust near the entrance of the building; Takagi saw it before it was over run by officers.

"Anyone there?" he called curiously into the dead air, but his words fell flat. Shiratori motioned for Takagi to continue up the stairs with the others while he and a couple of officers combed the floor.

There were dusty footprints heading up the stairs, imprints which he could just make out in the strained light of the torch a squaddie had give him. The prints later faded amongst the mass of the hostages footprints running down the stairs to freedom.

On the third floor, having left more men to search the second, he was met by a rubble filled doorway. A man-sized space had been cleared and Takagi could see the rows of dismantled bombs by the information desk, just like the hostages had said.

"Takagi-kun." Satou muttered, directing her torch around the corner in the direction of the next flight of stairs. Through the stirring dust, he could see a kid's trainer. He darted around the corner and his stomach flipped when he recognised the motionless figure of Conan. He was lying facedown until Takagi turned his tiny form over, checking that he could breathe despite the dust.

Takagi took in the blood covering one side of his face and the sizable in his forehead. Takagi was relieved to see a swirl a dist rise from the boy's mouth as he breathed slowly but rhythmically.

"Call an ambulance," he heard Satou bark at a man who immediately set about complying.

The boy was covered in a layer of dust, looking at where he had been lying, Takagi was surprised that he hadn't been trampled by the stampede of terrified shoppers.

"I'll get him outside." He muttered to Satou, "You keep up the search for 'Tantei-onii-chan'." She nodded, briskly joining the officers that continued up the stairs while the helpful bomb squaddie was examining the bombs in the room on the other side of the rubble.

* * *

Ran was in shock. She stared at the smoking building while the person responsible was ducked into a police car. The small girl who'd been held hostage wasn't Conan, so where was he? Ayumi had clearly realised the same thing and was tugging at Ran's sleeve.

"Where is he?" Ayumi's eyes pleaded with Ran to know the answer.

"I'm sure he's fine." Ran told her as reassuringly as possible with her own nerves fluttered in fear.

"Baka!" The girl who was friends with the Shinichi lookalike hit her friend.

"Hey, Aoko-chan, what was that for?" the boy complained.

"For chasing the bomber." Aoko sniffed, annoyed, "What if he'd been armed?"

"Well I'm fine, aren't I?" the boy muttered, "See." With a twist of the wrist, a puff of smoke and some confetti, he presented the girl with some folded fabric. The girl gasped.

"No way! How'd you..." She took the fabric gingerly from his hand, holding the light blue folds at one edge, letting it fall out into a long, beautiful dress.

"Baka, it was so obvious that you wanted me to help you choose your dress for that dance that's coming up. Why you asked me when you've got all those 'girlfriends' though, is beyond me. He turned when an officer tapped him on the shoulder.

Aoko clutched the dress to her chest, a strange expression on her face. Ran noticed that the dress was the same colour, the same shade as her eyes.

She was thinking of Shinichi when Ayumi cried out.

"There, Takagi!" Ran turned to see Takagi rushing towards an awaiting ambulance, carrying a small dust covered figure with dark unruly hair a couple shades lighter than it should be in his arms.

"Conan!" she ran towards Takagi, kids hot on her heels, Sonoko just behind.

His face was deathly pale, his glasses askew. In stark contrast was the shockingly red blood coating one side of his face. She stopped in shock as Takagi handed the limp figure to a paramedic before pulling himself into the ambulance. He stopped the paramedic from closing the door and beckoned for Ran to get in beside him.

"She's as good as family." Takagi told the man who stood aside to let her enter. Ran thanked Takagi profusely as she scrambled into the vehicle. She felt eyes on her that didn't belong to the group surrounding her. She looked around, and just before the doors swung shut, she caught sight of Aoko's friend watching the ambulance concernedly.

**A/N Hey guys, sorry it took so long to update, internet went down, 2nd hub in three months. Fixed it for now which is good, so i should keep updating regularly. **


	14. Oh, It'll Be Fine

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

**Happy New Years people.**

His head felt heavier than usual as he came to, blearily looking around.

"He's awake" he heard someone cry, "He's awake," this repeat was muffled, presumably as the speaker stuck their head around the door to share the news with others.

"Hey Conan-kun." One of his favourite people came into his field of vision.

"Hey Ran-neechan." He croaked, shocked at how dry his voice sounded as he erupted into a round of coughing as he sat up. A hand steadied him and a glass of water was pushed towards him. He took it gratefully and after a couple of mouthfuls slid down his throat, he handed the glass back to Haibara.

"Thank you," he said, relieved that, for now, he could talk without coughing.

"Don't forget your glasses Conan-kun." A timid voice said. Conan turned to Ayumi who didn't meet his eyes as she proffered his glasses toward him. He took them with a nod of gratitude and slid them up his nose as he looked around the room at hte crowd clustered around his bed.

Ran, Ayumi, Ai, Mitsuhiko. Professor Agasa was there, as was Takagu and Mori-ojiisan.

"Finally," tha latter grumbled, "Maybe I'll have a cooked meal tonight."

"Dad!" Ran exclaimed, before turningback to Conan, "Conan..." She began tentativly, "Do you know what happened?"

Conan's mind ran quicker than one would expect in response to this question as he formulated a story.

"I was waiting by the information desk on the third floor of hte shoppingcentre," he began slowly, quickeningas his story took shape, "I was waiting for the guys, when they didn't show, I headed back out to the stairwell, thinkingthat maybe I'd head them off. Then there was this big explosion," He used his arms to demonstrate, "up above, like the next floor up or something. I looked up to see this big rock, "He shrugegd, "Then I woke up to see you guys." He put his hand to his head, wincingas he felt the bandages and the wound beneath.

"Can I ask you all to wait outside while I do some tests." asked a male nurse as eh entered the room, making shoo-ingmotions towards Conan's friends, "It wouldn't do to overwhelm him now." he glared at the kids.

They all filed out, Ayumi lingering til last, shooting glances between Conan, hte nurse and Takagi who still stood in his corner of the room.

"I'm sorry Conan-kun." she inclined her her head sharply, unable to look him in the eye. She snucka glance up at him and at his frown of confusion began to babble, "It's my fault! If I hadn't asked you to wait where you did, you wouldn't be hurt! There wasn't even a reason! I just thought why not...! If..." she stopped as Conan began shaking his head.

"Baka," he told her affectionatly, causing her to look up in suprise.

"If you keep taking on the blame for stuff that's not your fault, then you'll be apologising all your life"

Before Ayumi could reply, the nurse interrupted,

"Could you head off now please kid." he ushered the girl out beofre turning to Takagi.

"Police." the officer stated, showing the nurse his badge. The nurse shrugged and began bustling about to prepare for the tests.

"Those were words of wisdom indeed." Takagi grinned at Conan, leaning on his beds railing. "As soon as he's finished, I'm gonna have to ask you some questions Conan-kun."

He was released a few days later. It turned out that the bomber was just a puzzle loving sadist who wanted a thrill bigger than the one he got from beatingand terrorising his wife and kids. Conan shivered when Takagi told him this. It was a tantei's nightmare, a psychologists puzzle, a criminal with no logical motive. An enigma who liked to cause pain for the sake of it.

**A/N I may have said in the last chapter that this was the last one in this arc. If so I was mistaken I'm afraid, it's the penultimate instead, I'll try and get that up today, just to soften my mistake.**

**Takagi is one of my favourite characters, and I actually have a One-shot from his point of view, I've got quite a few visitors to the site, but only two reviews, and one of thems a friends, so it doesn't really count. PLease Read and Review, even if you hate it, as a belated christmas/ New Years present.**

**Hope you all have had a good 2010, today is the 1/1/11, what a fun number, wait until the 11/11/11, what a rememberance day that'll be, symbolically. Me and my friends love fun dates. **

**Think over the past year, and think of what you've done which you've enjoyed, loved, hated, want to do again, favourite thing you've done or seen, friends you've made, just cause you can. Unless, you know, you've had a c*** year, in which case move forward, with a tabula rasa (Blank slate)**

**Did you know, if it's a plausible scenario, tv serials love ot have episodes called Tabula Rasa, usually associated with memory loss, Buffy, Criminal Minds, Stargate... there's probably more...**

**Any way, Happy New Year. Hope you like the next chapter.**

**CJaMes12**


	15. In Theory:

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

Takagi sat filling out the paperwork for the Shopping Centre Bombing Case. He'd just finished, mentioning in the report the mysterious young man who'd done so much and simply vanished. The police higher ups had figured out the the man was the elusive Kudo Shinichi form the girl and Kuroba's descriptions. Despite the fact that he was hooded, both of them had described him as looking like Kuroba, but with neater hair. Not to mention that the hostages had thought them brothers...

True to Kudo's requests of late, they had kept his name out of the report.

Takagi wondered about the detective's absense. He'd worked with him before on cases and knew how much he'd liked the presses attention, so his sudden disappearance seemed out of character. The Tantei didn't even seem to mind that it was being bandied about that he was dead.

"Hey Takagi." Takagi was brought out of his reverie by Makito-kun, a friend from the tech lab.

"Yes?"

"Um, well, could you run the prints from teh bomb case, there's quite a few and my girlfriend, well," Makito blushed, "You know how to work the machine, and it's getting late so the other techies have gone off."

"Sure," sighed Takagi, swinging his chair round and standing.

"Thanks mate, you're a life saver." Makito grinned and grabbed his coat, "Gotta go, she's cooking."

Takagi went into the lab, pulling on a pair of glovesout of habit, he'd helped in the lab on his up and commance to Detective, so he felt nostalgic as he sat in the chair next to the scanner and it's screen.

After scanning the prints into into the machine, he grouped ones of hte same fingers together, leaving quite a few seperate sets for him to examine. He had to hand it to Kudo, it was genius streak, getting everybody to help, assigning everone to a bomb. It was just a pain sorting it all out later.

He tapped a set on the screen and scanned the system for matches. Itou Osami, the bomber. He noted on a diagram the prints locations before repeating the processes with the other prints Kuroba, one of the Shopgirls.

He gave a tut of annoyance when the forth set of prints gave two matches. This meant that the prints were either too similar and the computer had gathered two different prints into a set, which meant that a long time scouring the prints for differances to highlight loomed in Takagi's immediate future, or that the computer had made a mistake.

He took a long draft from his mug as he clicked continue and the screen displayed the two names associated with the troublesome prints.

Takagi choked on his coffee.

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It started as a normal day, before things took a turn for the worst, someyhing blew up and the race against the clock began, just his and many other lives at risk, yet again... it'll be fine... in theory.

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**A/N And that concludes my first arc. Hope you enjoyed. Please Read and Review and the same old tune. As many Authors say, Reviews are our food, without them we shrivel and die, and our chapter output dwindles to nothing... PLease don't inflict that fate on me, I am just a newbie author... please have mercy! :)**

** Again, please look at Takagi: Looking Back, all points of view are relevant, but only if you tell me about them, otherwise, they mean squat to me. Thank you for reading, please put forward mini-arc ideas for filler, you will recieve mention in my Authors Notes. **

**This may be my last update for a few days, it may not. Wait and find out. **

**CJaMes12**


	16. What Would You Do

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

**Hey readers, I realise that I should take it upon myself to thank everyone who has reviewed for me so far. Your points of view and Ideas are brilliant.**

** Quite a few of you have commented on my typos, and for those, I apologise sometimes when I'm typing loads, even when I'm not, I fail to notice if I type teh instead of the. it's especially that word over others. **

** The next mini-arc is OC-centric, at least to begin with, it so I can shape my OC as an actual character rather than just a person whos there. After this mini-arc, she shall fade back into the backround and just be there as a charater who can input or say things without me having to worry about any canon character being OOC.**

** Hope you all enjoy. I make one final (possibly I may bring it up again at some point) plea for some one to review my other story, I still don't know peoples opinions of it, and I would really be interested in other POV.**

**

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**

Conan Edogawa, formerly Shinichi Kudo was in a bad mood. A small bout of depression contributed towards by him being small, combined with a slow ache in his head, radiating from the gash he obtained during the Bomb Case, not to mention that he was bored out of his skull. Damn he was lousy company. He knew his multiplication tables dammit!

Everyone around him was repeating over and over,

1x4=4  
2x4=8  
3x4=12  
4x4=32  
and so on.

They were revising for a test later that day. He sunk his head into his arms and didn't bother to look up as Sensei entered.

"Konnichiha Class."

"Konnichiha Sensei."

"Today I'd like to introduce you to your new classmate; she's from England, so treat her well."

"Hai Sensei."

Conan looked up to see the girl. The Girl. The one from the bombing case.

"Ohayou gozaimasu," she was saying uncertainly," I'm Caitlyn. Erm. Gordon Caitlyn."

"Konnichiha Caitlyn-san," the class chorused. Conan was surprised to see the girl flush slightly.

"Well Caitlyn-chan, why don't you tell us about yourself?" Sensei suggested gently.

Caitlyn began to talk, tripping over her words and stuttering slightly.

"Oh, well, I'm Scottish; I used to live in-erm- St Andrews and-um-I moved here to live with my mother. I-erm- read a lot and I like to listen to music."

One of the kids in front of Conan raised a hand, and at Sensei's nod asked their question.

"If you're English, how come you speak Japanese?"

Caitlyn coloured slightly.

"Erm, I'm Scottish-and my Dad taught me-from a very early age." He looked at them, almost willing them to challenge her. No one did, so she sighed, relieved and darted to a free seat, next to Haibara.

Conan kept shooting her glances. Her demeanour was completely different to how it had been in the shopping mall. As the first lesson progressed, that dreaded multiplication test, Conan picked up an aura of boredom from the girl, one he was all too familiar with. He finished the test in minutes, looking up to see that she'd done the same and was looking around the room, taking in the class projects.

After the lesson of eternity finished after what felt like for ever, the clay was brought out for the art lesson. This was the second lesson on their art projects, so they all had half completed models of various animals, a favourite project of the grade schooler.

The detective boys immediately swarmed over to the new girl as they had a tendency to. They didn't seem to recognise her from the shopping centre and Conan realised that he couldn't either, he'd theoretically been unconscious.

He grabbed his half completed dog, a basset hound with floppy ears and sat next to Caitlyn. For art, all the desks were pushed together and covered with newspaper, you just set up where there was space, which was how Caitlyn ended up with Conan on one side, Haibara on the other and Mitsuhiko, Genta and Ayumi sitting opposite her.

Ayumi held out a lump of clay to Caitlyn.

"Here you go; it shouldn't take long to catch up. We're supposed to sculpt an animal." 'Cause that's not stating the obvious. Ayumi was making a cat which sat tall on her desk, in the process of licking its half moulded paw..

"Arigato." Muttered Caitlyn, not making eye contact.

"I'm Ayumi." She began again, "This is Mitsuhiko-kun."

"I'm Genta," Genta input, not wanting to be left out, "The girl on your right is Haibara-san and four-eyes here is Conan-kun."

While Conan glared at Genta, who stuck out his tongue, the girl giggled.

"Yay!" Ayumi cheered," A smile!"

"You must be really smart," Mitsuhiko said grinning," I saw you finished that test really quickly, without preparing for it."

Caitlyn blushed and looked strangely guilty.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with that," Mitsuhiko raised his palms reassuringly.

"It just means that you're like Conan-kun and Ai-chan." Ayumi added.

"Stupid clever-clogs," muttered Genta, "Once Ai was able to calculate the force needed to propel a car or something."

They all, including Caitlyn looked at Haibara who sighed, never taking her eyes from the panther she was sculpting. "The speed the car needed to be travelling at to transverse the distance of forty meters allowing for a ten metre drop, and the force needed to propel it the extra distance."

Caitlyn was looking thoughtful, eyes angled down, biting her lip.

"And Conan knows everything about everything." Mitsuhiko used his arms to emphasize just how much Conan knew

"I just pay attention." Conan teased, feeling a pink tinge cross his cheeks at the praise.

"That's true; he can tell loads about a person, just by shaking their hands."

Conan laughed and Caitlyn grinned, "Like Sherlock?" she asked generally.

"Yeah!" Genta yelled, gesticulating wildly earning a stern look from sensei and instructions to 'zip it and work.'

Conan watched Caitlyn out of the corner of his eye, having not actually registered what she looked like at the centre. She had black cropped hair, like Satou's and light brown, almost amber eyes which were focused on her block of clay. Instead of forming shapes and sticking them together like the rest of the class, she was using a spatula to chip away at the clay.

The detective boys chattered, talking about past cases. After a point, they realised that the topic was actually one of interest to the Scot; she wasn't just being polite for the sake of it, they then began, at Conan's suggestions, describing the scenes, telling her the evidence and answering her well placed questions. Conan began to see the collected, logical girl from the centre shine through.

Before the end of the lesson, they had issued an invite to the Shounen Tantei Dan to her. Like he hadn't seen that coming.

They placed their models on the trays at the back of the classroom before heading out to the playground for break. Conan glanced over the groups sculptures. Genta, predictable as always, had done an eel; Mitsuhiko, a lion, it's mane drooping slightly. Caitlyn's unspecific at the moment, but what ever it was had wings which were extended around the air. A bird in flight.

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**That's that for now. I have the next two typed up, it just depends when I think it's best to post them.**


	17. If You Were Stuck

**A/N Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan, nor Magic Kaito, or any of the characters involved. They are the creation and property of Gosho Aoyama. May his well of imagination never run dry.**

**Sorry for the delay guys, It happened for a menagerie of reasons, which there probably isn't any point delving into, simply because it's happened now and you can't change it... or can you. Major concept of debate going on there. Any way, here's the next chapter of The Sign Of What To Come. Hope it meets any expectations.**

That evening at a local party, Kaito was fighting with his bowtie. He was bored and was struggling to conceal this fact as Aoko was dancing to the music with some of her girlfriends. She was wearing the dress that he'd picked out at the mall. He thought back to that incident, remembering the Tantei-kun. Kudo Shinichi and his strange disappearing act. He loved knowing the secret to a trick that other didn't. Thus the appeal of magic.

The kids at the dance were getting rowdier as the younger ones were persuading the older ones to buy them alcohol. They were getting completely drunk. Some were anyway. He watched Aoko having fun and tried to enjoy himself, to little avail. His excitement was thinner than the masks he usually wore.

"Come on with us then!" there was a group of boys heckling a girl who was swaying amongst them.

"No..." she slurred, taking a step back before realising that there was a guy behind her so she stumbled forwards again. They began to close in leering drunkenly.

Kaito appeared with a puff of smoke in the middle of them.

"Maybe it's time to back off guys."

Once they got over the shock of his materialisation, they looked unhappy. Angrily so.

"What's it to you?"

"She said no." Kaito said calmly, gripping the girl's shoulders tightly in preparation.

"You just want her for herself." The leader leered.

"Bakka, I don't need to wait until they're drunk." Kaito smirked, dropping another, always ready smoke bomb, pulling the girl from the circle to the other side of the room, watching amusedly as the guys stared stupidly at where they'd been.

"That's odd." The girl giggled, making Kaito turn to look at her as she stared cross eyed at her hands. "I'm seeing double."

He laughed, "That's what happens when you drink a lot."

She frowned, confused, "I only had three lemonades." Kaito caught her automatically as her knees buckled, "I guess mum was right. Sod's law, one of the few times I leave my drink unattended..." her voice slurred and she muttered herself into silence.

Angry now, he glared at the group of boys.

"Kaito...?" Aoko's nervous voice jerked him out of it. He shook his head in disgust. Chances are, it wasn't them, they just took advantage.

"Someone slipped her something," he informed Aoko roughly, who in turn looked shocked, "I'm gonna make sure she gets home."

Aoko nodded in fervent agreement, then paused, "D'you want me to come with you?"

Kaito looked from her to her friends on the dance floor," Nah, won't take long. Enjoy yourself." He reached out and put his hand on Aoko's bare shoulder. "Be **very** careful what you drink." He retracted his hand and shifted the girl so that he was supporting her and she could walk if she could, "Plus don't you girls have a rule about wearing a dress once. Be a shame to waste the one you're wearing after all the trouble I went to get it."

With a flash of his trademark mischievous grin he half-carried the girl to the door. When on the street he hailed a passing taxi.

"What address is it?" Kaito asked the girl. She muttered something that he relayed to the cabbie who nodded and began driving.

They arrived in a terraced area on the outskirts of the city, by which time, the girl had fallen asleep. He asked the cabbie if he could idle for ten minutes of so and he agreed affably.

Kaito carried the girl to the door and rang the bell. Moments later, the mail flap opened and eyes peered at him from the small slit. The peeker saw the girl and flung the door open exclaiming "Mhauri!" she then saw Kaito. "You!"

Kaito was staring with similar shock at the girl from the shopping mall. Small world. "Long time, no see, kid."

"What happened?"

"Someone slipped her something." The girl's eyes widened and stepped aside motioning for him to enter, finger on lips, asking him to be quiet.

He followed her through the house, down a corridor and up some stairs to one of the barest rooms he had ever seen. There was a bed and a chest of drawers. That was all. At this point in time, the bed was strewn with books; one of them was lying open, filled with sketches. The girl scooped all of them up and dumped them onto the chest of drawers. She pulled the duvet back and helped Kaito lay Mhauri onto the bed. The girl brushed a strand of hair from Mhauri's forehead,

"Will she be alright?" she whispered.

Kaito nodded," most likely, just let her sleep it off." When the girl (he really had to find something else to call her) nodded, he continued," We haven't actually been introduced. I'm Kuroba Kaito." He held out his hand.

She took it and replied, "Gordon Caitlyn." Her eyes stayed pinned on the prone form on the bed.

"I'd better be off," Kaito grinned," My friend's waiting for me."

Caitlyn showed him to the door, making sure to be as quiet as possible he noticed. He bowed to her once before sliding back into the cab and being driven away. She looked after his cab for a moment, remembering him srom the bombing incident, when he pointed that weird gun at the guy holding her captive. He was a damn good shot.

The taxi was long gone by the time she slipped back inside, careful not to wake her mother. Or Okaa-sama, as she was trying to 'fit in' in Japan. Whatever. She went back to her room to see her sister asleep on the bed. She must have been really out of it if she'd given this address. There was a reason she didn't live here. Caitlyn hoped against hope that she'd be well enough to go before morning came.

**A/N Please read and Reveiw, then I'll be guilted into getting the next chapter up sooner rather than later.**


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